The shell strikes one of the rocks in the pit and detonates. Even knowing what to expect, you can't help your primal shock-and-awe response. A tsunami of white fire leaps up, at odds with the size of the container that housed it, and roars away from you. The creature disappears instantly. A trail of black earth appears behind the flame, its snow cover reduced to liquid. At the treeline, the splintered wood from the creature's rampage ignites.

You sling the handcannon and survey the scene. The creature is nothing more than a skeleton now. In all your years living here, you've never seen any animal that looks like that before, and you've seen plenty. Something doesn't feel right. And the skeleton is too... something. Shiny?

Examine the skeleton.

Follow the creature's trail into the forest.